Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Pitching plans

OK, so we know that Josh Beckett won’t pitch Friday night. We don’t know who will, though all signs point to Devern Hansack. Yes, Hansack was scratched from tonight’s game at Pawtucket, which seems to be a dead give-away that he’s Fenway-bound. In fact, he was seen leaving McCoy in civilian clothes before tonight’s game, another pretty good hint.

Now, we also don’t know who will pitch Sunday. Tito was very coy about that. He said it will all make sense once they announce it. Wake was supposed to pitch Sunday, but he’ll know twirl his knuckler in the Bronx on Monday night.

The strong speculation is that Kason Gabbard will get Sunday’s nod. That is his day in Pawtucket anyway. Both of those guys pitched well when the Sox called them up last year, and they were both impressive in Spring Training. So with a nine-game lead in the standings, I don’t think you can go wrong with Hansack and Gabbard.

Ortiz is sick, so Manny will DH tonight. Wily Mo will play left. J.D. will be in right.

Anyway, I have to start writing, so I’ll add to this entry later in the day when I have more time.

Solid win today, great pitching and timely hitting were the story in the the first game. Both Sox runs were scored on 2-out RBIs and Papelbon looked off the charts with all three pitches. Did anybody see that slider he broke off on Rodriguez? Nasty.

More importantly, he only threw 13 pitches so if it’s another tight one tonight (which it should be), we’ll have Paps good to go.

Also of importance is that Tavarez gave 7 strong innings, meaning that he saved the bullpen some work which could prove crucial in the next 2 series.

I don’t mind missing the game if the make-up is a victory for the Sox and a good performance by Hooligan. Go Sox! But I did get bored last night and ended up eating the whole container of B&J’s ice cream, haha.

From what I have read on the Globe looks like it’s going Gabbard on Saturday and Hansack on Sunday. This only means that Beckett may go on the DL, Which is not a bad thing considering we have 8.5 game lead and We will need Beckett more later in the Season.

Schilling has to come up big tonight. Keep out of the bullpen early, get us a victory. Then it will be easier to take 2 of 3 from Atlanta and take the Yankee series, hopefully. This weekend the bats have to be hot, take pressure off the kids. That’s my plan. Tell Tito.

Gabbard for Friday, that is what I think, as for Beckett, if they place him on the 15 day DL they could make it retroactive to the 11th which means the 26th he could come back. This would allow Hansack to be recalled before the 21st. If no DL for Beckett then some one else must go on the DL for Hansack to come back.

I’m sure Manny is DH’ing to give him a rest. Also it doesn’t hurt to give Wily Mo some experience at all of the outfield positions, although I foresee him getting a bad read on a deep fly ball to left field and possibly running right through the Monster.

I don’t think that Synder should get the start. The way Schill is pitching we may have to use him, I would bet Hansack or gabbard getting the start. Synder is a reiliver, he hasn’t pitched many lenghty outing, while gannard and hansack have din AAA

I am excited about seeing Hansack and Gabbard start this weekend. Both are able back of the rotation type starters, and I look forward to seeing them produce. How about Eric Hinske with the jawdropping catch and the clutch two-run home run. One of the main reasons why I think the Sox will win the AL East and content for the World Series championship is the fact that so many different players come through on different nights. That is the sign of a great team.

From all the guys who you think would do it, Hinske hits the 2 run go-ahead bomb. The mark of a championship caliper club is one that gets contributions from the stars (Papi, Manny) all the way down to the 24th and 25th men (Hinske, Dougie). And tonight the latter hits a HR and makes a spectacular catch. 3 more outs and the lead will be 9 and a half.

Well, Schill did not seem to have his best stuff but he did not give up a lot of runs. The bullpen comes up HUGE again. And Hinske out of nowhere hits the game winner. If I were to be telling someone about playing the Sox right now, I would say; They have great starters but don’t be too anxious to get into their bullpen and DON’T let them get into yours. If you knock the starter out you better have a 7 run lead. This team will keep coming at you for all 27 outs. That’s my scouting report.

Let Beckett get his avulsion situation taken care of while the Sox are up 9 and 1/2. Hopefully by the time he gets back it will be double digits.

Papi got the night off because he has been battling a cold the last couple of days, nothing serious.

And it was great to see Hinske make some big plays tonight. Whenever they show the Sox bench, he always seems like the first guy up to congratulate a player and once again, the importance of character players and team chemistry cannot be stressed enough.

I’m not sure that it was Shilling who got out (or into) the jams, it took a lot of good defense. Some of those ‘doubles’ were such bloop hits, it’s hard to hold those against Shilling. The dude sums it up himself in the post game press conference, ‘weird’. You just have to love the character these guys are playing with though. ‘In your Face’ has some extra meaning for Hinske today, what a great play. Funny, Tavarez pitches a gem and looks like Schilling, Schilling pitches a head shaker and looks like Tavarez, and combined they give up what 3 runs?

Wasnt Schilling pitching short of rest? Should be an interesting weekend, Im hoping we can win tonight. Saturday could be anyone’s game awesome pitching matchup, and Sunday they have there best so far against our call up. We need tonight’s game to set up a 2\3 weekend. Maybe if the gods be willing a continued dominance of the senior circuit. Is it me or due the sox seem to have a problem hitting rookies and call ups?

We’ll have a doubleheader tomorrow. So we won’t have our Dice-K vs Smoltz duel, since Dice is now slotted in the first game against Lerew. I’m not sure why. And i don’t know who’s gonna start the 2nd game. If it’s Hansack, it doesn’t make any sense.

Well, it’s hard to argue with a manager that sit atop of the entire MLB, but i have to say : i don’t like the way things are turning out as for pitching matchups. Tito prefers to keep Dice-K in his scheduled afternoon slot and move Hansack from Friday night to Saturday night in a David vs Goliath type matchup against John Smoltz.

At least it’s nice for the afternoon game tickets holders. They still get to see Dice-K on the mound.

Is there a difference? if you have Dice-K face Smoltz you have two rookies against each other. You have to assume Dice-K beats the rookie and then Smoltz beats your rookie, isn’t that a wash, or is there that big of a concern with the rookie on the Braves, in which case both games would be a disadvantage anyway?

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